TASMANIA v RAUL PHILLIP GEORGE OWEN 4 NOVEMBER 2009
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE CRAWFORD CJ
Mr Owen you were dealt by me I see on 5 May 2006 and sentenced to six months' imprisonment of which three months was suspended on a condition of good behaviour for three years. On that occasion the sentence was imposed because you were cultivating about 95 mature plants in a compound that was considered to be a professional operation with a street value exceeding $200,000. You had no record but because it was such a valuable crop and it was likely that a substantial amount of cannabis would have been put out to the public I determined that imprisonment was demanded and sentenced you to six months imprisonment but, of course, suspended three months on a condition of good behaviour. Now that was the punishment for that crime. So the overall punishment was six months and you were told that three months of it would not have to be served if you were of good behaviour for three months.
You come before the Court now because within about a year and a half to two years you were growing cannabis again, this time I am told only 10 plants and you were also using and possessing. It is the cultivating aspect that is troubling to me. It is in a sense of the same nature of your previous crime, perhaps not cultivating for sale, but it was directed related. As I say I am not here to punish you for your second lot of offences, I am here to consider the punishment for the first, that is, for the trafficking, and in my view you have breached that condition and I think in a fairly substantial way because it was another drug offence.
In the circumstances I am not persuaded that the sentence should not be activated. The order is that the suspended part of that sentence of imprisonment imposed on 5 May 2006 take effect.